The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 7. Call Me Blade

Summary

Podcast Summary: The Binge Cases: Denise Didn't Come Home - Episode 7: Call Me Blade

Host/Author: Sony Music Entertainment
Episode Title: The Greatest Scam Ever Written | 7. Call Me Blade
Release Date: September 12, 2024

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Introduction

In Episode 7 of The Binge Cases, titled "Call Me Blade", host Rachel Brown delves deep into the intricate web of deceit spun by Patrice Renner, a seasoned copywriter behind the infamous Maria Duvall scam. This episode meticulously unpacks Patrice's rise in the fraudulent psychic services industry, his strategic manipulation of personal connections, and the profound impact of his actions on unsuspecting victims.

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Initial Contact and Building Rapport

[00:31] Rachel Brown: Rachel recounts her initial interaction with Patrice Renner, a convicted scammer incarcerated in the Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC) in Brooklyn. Despite the improbability of receiving a call from a prison inmate, Patrice's unexpected outreach sets the stage for an elaborate cat-and-mouse investigation.

Notable Quote:
[01:32] Patrice Renner: "I've been eager to connect with you for a while."

Rachel emphasizes the delicate balance required to engage Patrice, highlighting his expertise in deception and the necessity of projecting professionalism while probing for the truth.

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Understanding the Environment: Metropolitan Detention Center (MDC)

The MDC is portrayed as a high-security facility housing over a thousand inmates, where Patrice operates under stringent restrictions, including frequent lockdowns and limited phone access. These constraints add layers of complexity to Rachel's quest for information.

Notable Quote:
[04:35] Patrice Renner: "I need to wait an hour between each phone call to each phone call."

Rachel details the logistical challenges of communicating with Patrice, who juggles calls with family and legal counsel within the imposed time limits.

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Patrice Renner’s Background and Motivations

Patrice’s early life in Montreal, marked by his parents' divorce and a lack of maternal supervision, is explored to shed light on his motivations. His mother's unconventional approach and his father's conflicting career paths—claiming involvement with the Secret Service—paint a picture of a man driven by the desire for financial security.

Notable Quotes:
[10:08] Patrice Renner: "I was never studying. I was reading or playing outside. And even poor school was not that important. She's a strange, very strange person. So that's how I grew up."
[11:04] Patrice Renner: "I remember one day that said to one of my friend, I think I was 12 years old. Do you know a simple way to become a millionaire? No. I answered to him, it's easy. Find a way to make $1 1 million times."

Rachel connects Patrice's early fascination with copywriting to his eventual expertise in crafting persuasive scams, particularly the Maria Duvall operation.

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The Genesis of the Maria Duvall Scam

Patrice’s encounter with Maria Duvall, a renowned psychic, marks the inception of the scam. His admiration for her and his mentor Raymond Janssen’s influence catalyze the creation of fraudulent mail services that promised personal psychic correspondence.

Notable Quote:
[16:56] Rachel Brown: "He seeks out and befriends the authors of those books, the fathers of modern copywriting, and asks them to mentor him."

The strategy involves translating Maria's deceptive letters into English and distributing them across North America, meticulously designed to appear genuine and build trust with victims.

Notable Quote:
[20:23] Patrice Renner: "When people receive the package, their first impression was the Saint Tropez articles and that she was a good friend of."

Rachel underscores Patrice's manipulation of marketing techniques, such as using Maria's photograph and compelling offers, to lure victims into the scam.

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Scaling the Scam and Operational Tactics

By 1998, Patrice escalates the operation by subcontracting tasks to a data entry company in Long Island, coinciding with personal tragedies that Rachel investigates, such as Claire's body being found in the River Weir. This period signifies the transformation of a sophisticated marketing operation into a full-fledged scam, capitalizing on Maria Duvall's name without her active participation.

Notable Quote:
[24:36] Patrice Renner: "It's not Duval who wrote the letters, but that's not the point."

Patrice rationalizes the deception by drawing parallels to political campaign mailings, asserting that the intent behind the communication differentiates fraud from mere deceit.

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Rachel Brown’s Investigative Journey and Ethical Reflections

Throughout the episode, Rachel grapples with the ethical implications of Patrice's justifications. Despite thorough fact-checking that supports his claims, she remains unsettled by his blatant disregard for the emotional and financial devastation inflicted on victims like Doreen Robinson.

Notable Quote:
[30:00] Rachel Brown: "This good news was something he had crafted and refined to such a level that it became almost formulaic for him."

Rachel reflects on Patrice's inability to acknowledge the harm caused, portraying him as a delusional businessman who fails to see his actions as fraudulent.

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Upcoming Trial and Final Reflections

As Patrice’s trial date looms on June 5, 2023, Rachel anticipates a showdown between his crafted narrative and the prosecutorial efforts led by U.S. Postal Inspector Clayton Gerber. Patrice remains defiant, maintaining his innocence and framing the Department of Justice as the true perpetrator of fraud against him.

Notable Quote:
[38:40] Rachel Brown: "Or will Patrice be revealed as a fraudster."

Rachel contemplates the impending legal battle, emphasizing Patrice's adeptness at manipulating narratives and the critical assessment of his justifications.

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Conclusion

Episode 7, "Call Me Blade," of The Binge Cases offers a compelling exploration of Patrice Renner's intricate scam operations and his steadfast refusal to acknowledge wrongdoing. Rachel Brown's investigative prowess uncovers not only the mechanics of the Maria Duvall scam but also the psychological intricacies of a man who convinces himself of his moral righteousness. As the trial approaches, listeners are left pondering the efficacy of deceitful narratives in the face of undeniable evidence.

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Key Takeaways

• Patrice Renner's Manipulative Expertise: His background in copywriting and strategic deception facilitated the success and longevity of the Maria Duvall scam.

• Victim Impact: The scam exploited victims' emotional vulnerabilities, fostering fake relationships and financial dependency on fraudulent psychic services.

• Ethical Dilemmas in Journalism: Rachel Brown's journey highlights the challenges of engaging with deceitful sources while striving for factual integrity.

• Legal Implications: The forthcoming trial serves as a pivotal point for accountability and the unraveling of sophisticated scams.

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Subscribe to The Binge Cases:
For more gripping true crime stories that delve into the darkest corners of human deception, subscribe to The Binge Cases on Apple Podcasts or visit GetTheBinge.com.

Transcript

[Afwah Hirsch]

I'm Afwah Hirsch. I'm Peter Frankopan. And in our podcast Legacy, we explore the lives of some of the biggest characters in history. This season, we are looking at the life of the British Prime Minister, Winston Churchill. It's fair to say he's a complex and controversial character almost 150 years since his birth. How does his legacy hold up today? Follow Legacy now wherever you get your podcasts or binge entire seasons early and ad free on Wondery.

[Rachel Brown]

The Bench. Right from the very first time Patrice Renner called me, I knew I had to handle the relationship delicately. If you remember, I had sent off my handwritten letter to him back in February 2022, and I kind of assumed I'd hear nothing back. After all, this man was sitting in prison in Brooklyn, accused of running a serious criminal enterprise, a massive scam that tricked millions of Americans. He had never spoken to a journalist before, and now awaiting trial would not be a sensible time to start. So I'm surprised when I see an American area code pop up on my phone. I think, there's no way this call is from a federal prison. It is Patrice. And he launches straight into a long spiel about how my handwritten letter had intrigued him.

[Patrice Renner]

I got your letter yesterday evening was unexpected. I was intrigued by the fact that it was handwritten. It's unusual.

[Rachel Brown]

The criminal mastermind running the Maria Duvall scam is actually calling me. It's so out of the blue that I don't even have my notes at hand. As you can hear, I have to wing it.

[Patrice Renner]

Well, I've been eager to connect with you for a while.

[Rachel Brown]

As I mentioned.

[Patrice Renner]

I have.

[Rachel Brown]

Throughout that entire first call. I try to project breezy and professional, but my stomach is doing backflips. I know I need to keep him talking. Developing a relationship with someone, someone like Patrice, is complex, to say the least. You have to approach him with caution, outwardly friendly, while always aware that he is a master of deception. Allegedly. Anyway, it's a tricky balance, and I need to get it just right if I'm going to get answers to my burning questions. How and why did Patrice oversee this huge scam? What kind of life had led him to this point? And how does he feel now about the people whose lives he destroyed? And, of course, Patrice has his own reasons for speaking to me.

[Patrice Renner]

Yeah, I'm pretty enthusiastic that you contacted me so that I have someone who's gonna present. Not the truth. It's another perspective. My perspective.

[Rachel Brown]

The thing is that, unlike Patrice, I believe that there is a truth. Here, and we need to grapple with it, no matter how uncomfortable that might be for him. I'm Rachel Brown, and this is the greatest scam ever written from Sony Music Entertainment and ITN Productions. Episode 7 Call Me Blade When Patrice rang me that winter morning, he was calling from the Metropolitan Detention center in Brooklyn, New York. Known as mdc, it's this massive concrete structure that houses over a thousand federal inmates at any one time. Most of them are awaiting trial or serving very short prison sentences. Patrice tells me he and other inmates are often under lockdown, not allowed to move around freely, barred from accessing phones. Whether it's to stop inmate disputes or cover staff shortages, prisoners are never sure when a lockdown is coming. And at mdc, they happen a lot. When Patrice does get the chance to call me, there's a 15 minute time limit, and he has to fit me in around conversations with his family or his lawyer.

[Patrice Renner]

I need to wait an hour between each phone call to each phone call. And also I try to reach my young children.

[Rachel Brown]

And at any moment during these calls, we would get cut off with a few seconds warning.

[Patrice Renner]

Okay, well, there's only a few seconds. I guess you'll okay, it's okay.

[Rachel Brown]

But as the months pass, Patrice and I speak on the phone regularly. And we exchange many long emails. Emails. He loves to write. He is a veteran copywriter, after all. So this episode tells his story using his actual voice and phone recordings from MDC and his written words voiced up by an actor. Of course, I'm eager to get answers to my big questions. But first, I need to build some rapport to get to know Patrice. Starting with the basics.

[Patrice Renner]

I guess I was curious about your last name.

[Rachel Brown]

Runner.

[Patrice Renner]

The proper pronunciation.

[Rachel Brown]

Each call begins with me checking in on Patrice's welfare, his health, his state of mind.

[Patrice Renner]

How is it there? Is it?

[Rachel Brown]

These are good, safe topics to encourage a source to see you as someone they can talk to. I also want to show him I've done my research on all aspects of his life, not just the scam.

[Patrice Renner]

I did look you up in Spain, and I did see. Did you run this? The ibiza Marathon in 2018. Oh, well, I do, yes.

Oh, no, no, no. I don't know. Half American.

[Rachel Brown]

Patrice is keen to get to know me in return.

[Patrice Renner]

Just a question like this, just because I'm curious. How old are you? How old are you?

I am 31.

Yeah, that's what I thought. I thought you were pretty young.

[Rachel Brown]

It's always strange when a man asks your age. Is he being patronizing? Trying to Flirt or just curious? Patrice is in his late 50s. I wonder whether he sees me as a naive young woman and whether that could work to my advantage. After a few more phone calls, I ask him directly about the scam for the first time.

[Patrice Renner]

I've been curious to know when you first heard about Maria Duvall.

Okay. That's going to be more subjects face to face, but I don't want to give any clue about anything about that file on the phone.

[Rachel Brown]

Patrice won't talk about anything sensitive over the phone. Only if we meet face to face. This deflection is extremely frustrating. My harder questions will have to wait until I get down to New York and visit him in person. But in fairness to Patrice, prison calls are often recorded and can be used by police and prosecutors. In some circumstances, it's reasonable for him to be careful, especially in the lead up to his trial. He's also rightly cautious of me as a journalist. After his arrest, his face is all over the Internet and there are many stories speculating about who he really is.

[Patrice Renner]

I'm just curious if you'd seen all of the press coverage that has come out.

Yeah, I've seen about 15 of them. It's pretty bad. So that's something I wanted to tell you. I'm going to prepare a report by the end of the week. I extract some claims that I got that are from the media, that I totally fall, and then I lied to you. What's the truth?

[Rachel Brown]

Patrice's desire to control the narrative stretches even to the smallest details. He has issues with the photo the British Daily Mail newspaper used when talking about his arrest. The picture captures him with a slight smile, dimples in his cheeks, and his hair spiked up, mimicking the palm tree in the background.

[Patrice Renner]

It's a photo that my father took a few years ago. And he was. He got super upset.

[Rachel Brown]

He says his father is upset. The Daily Mail used that photo. And Patrice isn't a fan of the write up either.

[Patrice Renner]

You know the British press, they have no limit. They lie. That's the only one that I read that was really kind of bullshitting about myself.

[Rachel Brown]

The irony of Patrice being concerned about a paper printing lies is not lost on me. While Patrice has hit pause on my questions about the scam, I use our conversations to start digging into one of my other big questions. How has his life led him to this point? Patrice was born in 1966 in Montreal, Canada. It's the largest city in Quebec where the provincial language is French.

[Patrice Renner]

When I was a kid, my parents divorced when I was six years Old. I never got any supervision from my mother about my studies. She never checked if I was doing my homework, for example.

[Rachel Brown]

He always seems strained whenever he talks about his mom. She was unconventional and didn't pressure him to follow rules, even ones that might have been good for him.

[Patrice Renner]

I was never studying. I was reading or playing outside. And even poor school was not that important. She's a strange, very strange person. So that's how I grew up.

[Rachel Brown]

His mother was a writer and his father was an economist who also, Patrice says, worked in the secret Service. It's a claim I find difficult to substantiate. He tells me more in a follow up email voiced here by an actor.

[Patrice Renner]

When I was 11 and started high school, my mother started to share with me the monthly family cash flow. How it was hard for her to reach both ends. At that time, I had no idea what type of work I wanted. But it was clear I wanted to get rich so I wouldn't constantly struggle financially like her.

[Rachel Brown]

His impulse to feel safe financially is very relatable. But it was more than this. He was desperate to be rich.

[Patrice Renner]

I remember one day that said to one of my friend, I think I was 12 years old. Do you know a simple way to become a millionaire? No. I answered to him, it's easy. Find a way to make $1 1 million times.

[Rachel Brown]

It seems that even at 12, Patrice had understood economies of scale. It's this logic that made the Maria Duvall letters so successful. I'm not sure if he's lonely in prison or he just enjoys talking about himself. But it's not hard keeping up the conversation over emails and phone calls. I'm just holding out for a meeting in person so that he will talk about the scam itself. Finally, the opportunity arrives. I've been commissioned by a magazine to write a piece about him, and he's happy for me to come in for the interview.

[Patrice Renner]

You can come and meet me here. We, both of us, are going to be way more comfortable to speak freely. And the problem here is that the visits are only for one hour.

[Rachel Brown]

Visits may be just one hour, but I leave him under no illusions that I'll be arriving prepared.

[Patrice Renner]

We have a long list of topics for when we when we meet face to face.

You speak very, very, very fast. In one hour. Okay.

[Rachel Brown]

It has taken months of back and forth, but now I'll finally be able to sit down with Patrice Renner and hear his side of the story.

[Patrice Renner]

Maybe it's not moral, maybe it's bullshit, but that doesn't mean it's fraud.

[Clayton Gerber]

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[Clayton Gerber]

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[Afwah Hirsch]

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[Rachel Brown]

Our first face to face meeting is at the height of intense Covid restrictions at the prison. They still have regular visiting hours, but we have to wear face masks and sit at a table with a plexiglass divider. Patrice walks in with some confidence. Tall and a lean physique, he still has his signature long brown hair, although not in a ponytail. Now his face is pale and deeply wrinkled, but his dark eyes still shine under the fluorescent lights. Not allowed to record inside the prison, but I'm not sure you'd be able to hear much anyway. It's so loud in the visiting room that Patrice and I sometimes have to lean around the divider, almost shouting at each other through our masks. He likes to joke around, which I find surprising given the circumstances he's in. But it gets us both through the initial nerves and I ease him into the interview by asking about how his obsession with copywriting started. This is what he said to me, edited for clarity, voiced by an actor.

[Patrice Renner]

It's a long story. I was fascinated with copywriting since I was 15 years old.

[Rachel Brown]

He's reading a magazine when an advertisement catches his eye.

[Patrice Renner]

I noticed that as I was reading the ads. I thought, wow, the way it's written, it's very powerful.

[Rachel Brown]

Something about the language sticks with him. And just like that, he's introduced to the magic of copywriting.

[Patrice Renner]

And I realized it was a real profession, like being a lawyer or physician.

[Rachel Brown]

His father notices his interest and gives him a French weight loss ad to look at. Patrice discovers it was written by a man from Belgium believed to be the best copywriter in the world.

[Patrice Renner]

He was making millions of dollars.

[Rachel Brown]

A year later, as a young man, Patrice comes across an advertisement for Maria Duvall in her letters. This is the original European scam run by Jean Claude Roy and Jacques Maillon. He's entranced by the ad, the power of the words to make money. And he's intrigued by the mysterious figure of Maria Duvall. He surrounds himself with books about copywriting.

[Patrice Renner]

I learned everything in books at the library about copywriting and direct marketing in general.

[Rachel Brown]

He seeks out and befriends the authors of those books, the fathers of modern copywriting, and asks them to mentor him.

[Patrice Renner]

Raymond Janssen was my private copywriting teacher for several years.

[Rachel Brown]

He starts developing mail order business ideas with Janssen.

[Patrice Renner]

We wrote many ads together in the early 90s for a client who was one of the first to have mail order operations in Eastern Europe market. So just after the Berlin Wall fell.

[Rachel Brown]

They launch all sorts of products together, including an oil that you put on a fishing line as bait.

[Patrice Renner]

It was a product called Catch Z all. It smells strong and is illicit in fishing competitions as it provides an advantage.

[Rachel Brown]

Our conversations about copywriting naturally lead us to where I want to go. The Maria Duvall scam.

[Patrice Renner]

Janssen gave me the idea to go direct to her. Cut out the middleman.

[Rachel Brown]

Patrice says it was his mentor, Raymond Janssen, who saw the opportunity. And Patrice was already familiar with the story of Maria Duvall. And then comes the first moment in our interview that changes my understanding of the case, because Patrice tells me it's actually all the way back in 1994 that he first went in search of Maria Duvall, way earlier than I'd thought. While in France on a business trip, Patrice goes to a phone booth and looks for her name in the white pages. Maria Duvall. There it is, in black and white. She picks up, and he boldly asks if it's possible to come and visit her. He has an idea he wants to share. Maria replies yes. And Patrice and his girlfriend at the time head to her villa in Calas. Arriving at her grand home, he's impressed by the swimming pool and acres of land, and Maria is curious about him.

[Patrice Renner]

I had the same haircut as Billy Idol, dyed white. I wore tight black pants, colorful, strange shoes, and a blazer with a Crazy shape. She was probably thinking, who's this guy?

[Rachel Brown]

Maria does a reading for Patrice's girlfriend, during which she seems to divine details that she can't possibly have known, including that Patrice's girlfriend had lost her father at age six. Patrice's admiration grows.

[Patrice Renner]

We connected very quickly.

[Rachel Brown]

Maria then shows them the same book of news clippings Antoine shared with me earlier in this series. An archive of articles detailing her history as a famed psychic in France.

[Patrice Renner]

I was very impressed by her pressbook. There were dozens of clippings, lots to extract, and so powerful and important, I couldn't believe it.

[Rachel Brown]

His mind begins filling with ideas about the potential of all of this for the letters, the stories he could weave. At this moment, Patrice devises the idea of sending out the letters as part of a chunky info package. Dozens of pages detailing Maria's achievements in the south of France and beyond.

[Patrice Renner]

When people receive the package, their first impression was the Saint Tropez articles and that she was a good friend of.

[Rachel Brown]

Brigitte Bardot, A claim we now know Brigitte Bardot disputes. He also notices a story in her press book where she used a person's hair to connect with them.

[Patrice Renner]

I came up with the idea for the green envelopes. Green means hope and stands out.

[Rachel Brown]

Patrice pitches Maria the idea of translating the letters into English and sending them across Canada.

[Patrice Renner]

I seduced her. She was so enthusiastic.

[Rachel Brown]

License acquired. Deal done. The first letters land in September that year, 1994. By November, he launches his first big advertising campaign for the letters with giant full page spreads across Canada, offering Maria's services, urging people to send in their addresses for more information. Maria's striking headshot, coupled with Patrice's grabby copy, draws people in.

[Patrice Renner]

I had spent the summer writing the mailings, translating them into English and getting the lucky charms.

[Rachel Brown]

The letters really take off, with thousands of people signing up.

[Patrice Renner]

The letters launched across Canada before Christmas and then to the US after Christmas.

[Rachel Brown]

Again, Patrice's story is changing the way I think about the timeline of this scam, because now we know that Patrice did not, in fact, inherit the business from Jean Claude and Jacques. Instead, he says he acquired Maria's name for the North American market while they still had Europe. So all three of these men were operating at the same time. In the 90s, I asked Patrice if he personally knew Jean Claude and Jacques.

[Patrice Renner]

I signed Duval just before meeting Jean Claude.

[Rachel Brown]

It was at a fancy restaurant in Cannes and they didn't make a good impression.

[Patrice Renner]

Maillard was more of a EP and Jean Claude was not a good copywriter.

[Rachel Brown]

In Patrice's telling Jean Claude had been hoping to take the operation global himself, but hadn't been able to, quote, nail it down. Nevertheless, Patrice, Jean Claude and Jacques were all making plenty of money off the back of Maria Duvall's name. I asked him if he felt like they were exploiting her.

[Patrice Renner]

She was pretty involved and received 5% net sales from the letters from the business. She was happy.

[Rachel Brown]

Patrice says that Maria was especially close to Jacques Maillon.

[Patrice Renner]

He was the only one who could manage her. He managed her like a Hollywood star. He really believed in her abilities.

[Rachel Brown]

I'm inclined to believe Patrice here. It does seem that Maria had the power to make the North America deal with him herself, possibly against the wishes of Jean Claude. This just doesn't mesh with the impression Antoine had given me that his mother was a naive woman being used and intimidated by the businessmen. The most likely story is that they were all in this together. And in case you're thinking why should we trust a single word this scammer's saying, I'm with you. But I've fact checked every claim Patrice has made to me since the start of our relationship and so far everything he says checks out. But all this in no way excuses Patrice for his role in the scam. I ask him about all the green envelopes found in those Long island dumpsters, the victims who were paying for psychic services and not receiving them. Did he know that people's personal requests and their locks of hair were being thrown in the trash? His answer takes me by surprise.

[Patrice Renner]

These green envelopes were sent to Maria Duval regularly in boxes to the point that she complained to me when I visited her at her place that there were too many boxes.

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[Rachel Brown]

At the end of each in person visit, Patrice leans in for one of those French two cheek kisses and waves as he walks away with the other inmates, he's getting familiar, even sharing his prison nickname with me. Everyone calls me Blade after the film Blade Runner. He's starting to think of me as a confidant, talking to me about the conditions at mdc, giving me updates on his family, and slowly sharing more and more of the inside story of the scam. He's given me the whole history of how he got involved in the scam, and now this recent revelation that Maria was receiving the letters herself, at least to start with. He says that as the volume of replies increased, she just couldn't handle the workload. It became impossible for her to be a psychic pen pal to that many people.

[Patrice Renner]

I took multiple trips to Maria's home and big boxes of envelopes were sent to her. She asked me to stop them, but I said no, it's part of the whole operation.

[Rachel Brown]

He tells me what happened next in an email.

[Patrice Renner]

In 1998, I moved to the west coast with my family. We started to subcontract all of the tasks related to the mail opening to a data entry company based in Long.

[Rachel Brown]

Island to run the greatest scam ever written, he had to outsource. And I know this part is true because we can trace the year that the caging service began handling the Maria Duvall mail. And it's 1998, just as Patrice says, the same year Claire's body was found in the River Weir. So this was the moment Patrice scaled up and took the scam to new levels. Business was booming and he wasn't going to let the fact that Maria was no longer willing or able to reply to the letters stop him from breaking in the cash. But this is also the moment that a shady direct marketing operation became an outright scam. Because if Maria was no longer responding. People were no longer getting what they were paying for personal psychic services from Maria Duvall. For me, the most troubling aspect of this scandal is the fact that victims believed they were developing a real relationship with Maria. As well as sending money. They shared their deepest hopes and fears. But when I put this to Patrice in an email, he sees no problem.

[Patrice Renner]

It's not Duval who wrote the letters, but that's not the point.

[Rachel Brown]

He goes further in a follow up email.

[Patrice Renner]

When a politician sends mailings to to prospects for their fundraising campaigns, it's not them who sends the mailings or receive the mail with payments. Even if they sign, they have usually not been written by them, but by their staff in charge of communication.

[Rachel Brown]

But it's not the same thing. Political campaign contributions are spent on, well, political campaigns, not supercars and five star hotels. And he understood exactly what compelled people to reply.

[Patrice Renner]

There's an intrinsic need of human beings to get good news about the future.

[Rachel Brown]

This good news was something he had crafted and refined to such a level that it became almost formulaic for him. One email he sent me had the subject line the Golden Rules of Copyright.

[Patrice Renner]

First, grab the attention of the reader. Usually and especially if the photo is well chosen. The photo is what is going to attract the eyes at the first.

[Rachel Brown]

Second, Maria Duvall's photograph right at the top of each letter flashes through my mind.

[Patrice Renner]

Second, make to the readers an offer so good they would feel stupid saying no. 3. The ad is not there to talk about the amazing characteristics of a product, but to present the benefits and positive changes it will bring to its new owner's life. 4. Credibility.

[Rachel Brown]

I raise an eyebrow reading that last one. Patrice then goes on to write copy for specific hypothetical product from a made up company to show me the techniques in action.

[Patrice Renner]

Find a great name like the Ninja MasterChef Laser Blade Knife used by MasterChefs in Japan and around the world who swear by it. Those chefs would have paid many times the amount it is offered for a limited time only $79. Today you can get the same authentic Ninja MasterChef laser blade knife for not even half of that price for only $39. But that's not all. We'll include in your package for free a set of 12 mini ninjas. If you call by noon today, we'll include a second Ninja MasterChef laser blade knife to your package. So don't risk arriving too late and regret that you have missed this unique offer. Call right now while you have it in mind. All you have to do is grasp.

[Rachel Brown]

The hand of Friendship we are holding out to you. Even while locked up in one of America's most notorious jails, Patrice is able to effortlessly knock out the 13,000 characters of this make believe ad. And I know plenty of people who might buy a knife because of ads like this. But reading the formula in action, I can see that Patrice isn't really a great writer. He's just an extremely effective copywriter. He knows how to sell things. And as we've learned, it doesn't matter to him what those things are. By the year 2000, Patrice had moved away from Montreal. He claims he relied on Mary Thanos and Phil Lett to run things day to day.

[Patrice Renner]

I was not very involved at all. I delegated. I was really reliant on them.

[Rachel Brown]

For 10 years. They organized the logistics and data management as the money poured in. But Patrice was the boss, and the boss gets paid the most. As I sit with him in federal prison, the two of us do some rough math and estimate that he personally made tens of millions of dollars. The Maria Duvall scheme was the most lucrative business he'd managed in his career. By far. It brought in Incredible sums over two decades. At its peak, $23 million in one year. He could shop, dine, and live in some of the fanciest places in the world. All funded by people like Doreen Robinson. People cobbling their last dollars together just to make payments for the cheap little trinkets and the fake Maria letters that Patrice was selling. I've been speaking to Patrice for over a year. When he gets news of his trial date, June 5, 2023. When I ask him how he's feeling about it, he's defiant, almost upbeat. Flatly dismissing any possibility that he could be guilty of fraud. This was one of our phone calls.

[Patrice Renner]

There's no fraud in that case and not involved in any fraud. There's no intention of fraud. And I think the only fraud there's in that case is a fraud from the doj, the Department of Justice. It's a big scam against these.

[Rachel Brown]

In a follow up email, I ignore his conspiracy theory and press him on his denial of fraud. After all, he clearly lied to his customers. His reply is again voiced by an actor.

[Patrice Renner]

We say that deceit doesn't equal fraud. Our customers bought a product and if they weren't happy, they got a refund. And most of them bought again and again.

[Rachel Brown]

I'm sure tobacco companies say the same thing about their customers. But repeat customers aren't necessarily happy ones. As we heard from Chrissy Robinson, Doreen was essentially addicted to the letters. She had no control over herself when replying. And yet, every time I confront Patrice over his victims and how they suffered, he responds in that same way. They were customers and they wanted his product. His belief is so unwavering that it feels delusional, like he can't allow himself to see the truth. Looking back over the many conversations I've had with Patrice, my feelings are mixed. In some ways, this complex relationship has got me the answers I wanted. I understand much more now about Patrice's life. How he got involved in the scam, how he took it to new heights, and how he justifies it all to himself. And I understand why he did it. Money, pure and simple. Our interviews, combined with some heavy fact checking, have also changed the way I think about several other aspects of the case. Most importantly, the fact that Maria is likely to have been a key figure in the operation herself, not just a name that was bought and exploited. But I also still feel some frustration. It's been hard to truly hold Patrice to account for what he did to all those victims. He just can't see that he might have done anything wrong. He can't see himself as anything other than a successful businessman who simply sold people what they wanted. But now, with the trial fast approaching, the unstoppable force of Patrice's self belief is about to run up against U.S. postal Inspector Clayton Gerber.

[Indra Varma]

He thought he was going to talk his way out of these things, and I had to explain to him. Welcome to the United States. Let me explain to you how our process works. It is unusual that we see someone who is deceitful to their core.

[Rachel Brown]

It's a striking phrase. As I said, in all our interactions, I've never once caught Patrice in an actual lie. And believe me, I've tried. But I know exactly what Clayton means. Patrice is a man who tries to use everyone and everything as part of his story. A story where he is the hero going into his trial. I know it will be more of the same. More of him trying to control the narrative in a way that might elicit sympathy from the judge and jury. It's the most important tale he'll ever tell. But will it work? Will they buy what Patrice and his lawyers are selling? His final act of persuasion.

[Indra Varma]

We pay a magician to experience magic. He's not defrauding us out of our money when he lies about the magic. Deception, yes. Fraud, no. He intends to deceive us, to trick us. And he intends to take our money.

[Rachel Brown]

Or will Patrice be revealed as a fraudster.

[Indra Varma]

In the very first letter he sent out. He didn't say. Are you interested in information about psychics? No. He started on the scam right away. Runner's first letter looked like it came from Maria Duvall. That's a lie.

[Rachel Brown]

That's Next time on the Greatest Scam Ever Written Unlock all episodes of Smokescreen the Greatest Scam Ever Written ad free right now. By subscribing to the Binge Podcast channel, not only will you immediately unlock all episodes of this show, but you'll get binge access to an entire network of other great true crime and investigative podcasts. All ad free. Plus, on the first of every month, subscribers get a binge drop of a brand new series that's all episodes all at once. Just click subscribe at the top of the Smokescreen show page on Apple podcasts or visit getthebinge.com to get access wherever you get your podcasts. This episode of the Greatest Scam Ever Written was hosted by me, Rachel Brown. Our assistant sound designer is Sam Caseta. Our sound designer is Luke Evans. Our mixer is Jay Rothman. Our assistant producers are Luca Evans and Leo Schick. Our producer is Millie Chu. Our story editor is Dave Anderson. Voices by Bruce Kennedy, Nevada Red, Max Laramie and Robert Pierce for ITN Productions. Our production manager is Emily Jarvis. Our executive producer is Rubina Papa Bonnie for Sony Music Entertainment. Our executive producer is Catherine St. Louis.